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Stone Pines at Sestri, Gulf of Genoa John Ruskin

Ruskin text

13. Stone-pines.

The black spruce and the stone-pine are both of equal importance
in the Greek mind; as relating either to the mountains, or the
sea and ships. But the true pine, whose double leaves give it
the epithet διπλόθριξ, grows
continually by the sea-shore, and is properly the one sacred to
Poseidon. This
piece of landscape, showing
a bay of the Mediterranean
through the stems of the pines, will give you some idea of the
mingled grace and strength of the tree, where it grows on crag,
and is tried by storms, as among the Greek islands.

Curator’s description:

Description

The drawing is dominated by a single pine tree, surrounded by others, smaller and less well-defined. An uneven path leads down the hillside, and the sea and a distant coastline can be glimpsed through the trees.
On 29 April 1845 Ruskin wrote home that he planned to 'make studies of stone pine' (H.I. Shapiro, Ruskin Family - Ruskin in Italy: Letters to his Parents, Oxford (Clarendon Press): 1972, letter 19). His next letter relates that he had been 'working like a horse, and have got a most valuable study of stone pine ... Air all scented by the pines and wild flowers - and the birds singing so loudly you can hardly hear the sea'. (Shapiro, letter 20)

Ruskin first catalogued the drawing in 1870, listing it as no. 10 in the Educational series in the "Catalogue of Examples". The following year, he moved it to frame 13 in case I of the series, "Introductory Subjects, and Exercises in Flower Drawing" (Educational Catalogue, 1st edition). By 1874, the drawing had been re-numbered as no. 22, although its position remained the same (Educational Catalogue, 2nd edition). In the 1878 reorganisation of the collection, however, Ruskin intended to move the drawing to the Rudimentary Series where, as no. 295, it would have been part of a series showing how to depict plants. It seems, from his description in the catalogue, that the drawing was originally partly obscured by its mount (Rudimentary Series, manuscript catalogue).

Ruskin included the drawing in the collection both as an example of speedy but accurate depiction, and because of the association of the stone pine with Poseidon. He wrote to his father in 1852 that, in 1845, 'I went into Italy with a new perception of the meaning of the words drawing and chiaroscuro. My first attempts with my new perception were those of the stone pines at Sestri, now in your bedroom' - the drawing he later placed in the Drawing School (XXXVI.131).

Study of my own at the
‘Promontory of Sestri’, giving example of the application of these various methods, with the utmost possible speed consistent with care. The whole drawing was done in a day and there is another Stone-pine concealed by the Mount more elaborate, but less satisfactory than those below, which, therefore, are alone shown. [I see two spots of mildew on the sky and suspect a slight alteration of colour here & there in Washes from the same cause. At all events their fault is being too uneven.]